News Report 10/30/17

The New Jersey Bureau of Securities has fined LPL Financial almost $1 million for unsuitable REIT and BDC sales. According to InvestmentNews, LPL Financial allegedly let its brokers sell excessive amounts of alternative investments and failed to supervise its brokers concerning suitability requirements tied to the sale of illiquid alternative investments. New Jersey fined LPL Financial $950,000 and ordered it to pay $25,000 to a state investor education fund. If you are an investor who has suffered investment losses involving REITS or alternative investments at LPL Financial, please contact the Investment Loss Recovery Team at 1-800-856-3352 for a no-cost consultation and review.

FINRA has awarded 13 clients over $5 million against a Georgia-based broker who ruined their financial lives. The investors alleged that Jason Charles Parker, a former broker with Edward Jones and LPL Financial, decimated their life savings and retirement assets when he falsified client records, forged their signatures and engaged in self-dealing and unauthorized trading. If you are an investor who has suffered investment losses involving Jason Charles Parker, Edward Jones or LPL Financial, please contact the Investment Loss Recovery Team at 1-800-856-3352 for a no-cost consultation and review.

LPL Financial has been ordered to pay $295,000 for a Ponzi scheme probe involving a disgraced broker serving more than five years in jail for defrauding clients. As reported in InvestmentNews, Charles Fackrell of Booneville, N.C. ran a Ponzi scheme that misused funds from at least 20 clients when he was a broker affiliated with LPL Financial. Fackrell used his position of trust to solicit victim investors and steer them away from legitimate investments to purported investments with various Robin Hood named entities that Mr. Fackrell controlled and through which he could access victim’s funds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. The state of North Carolina fined LPL Financial $25,000 and ordered the broker-dealer to reimburse the state $270,000 for the cost of investigating a $1.4 million Ponzi scheme. If you are an investor who has suffered investment losses involving Charles Fackrell or LPL Financial, please contact the Investment Loss Recovery Team at 1-800-856-3352 for a no-cost consultation and review.

InvestmentNews has reported that FINRA has barred a former LPL Financial broker, Jerry Lee Travers, from the securities industry for failing to appear for on-the-record testimony in connection with a FINRA investigation. Travers, who had been affiliated with LPL Financial since 2012, failed to provide testimony in connection with an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Travers payments in connection with securities transactions to a non-registered person. Separately, FINRA also barred John Robert Larson, a former broker at Waddell & Reed, for failing to provide requested information and documentation related to falsified expense reports. If you are an investor who has suffered investment losses involving Jerry Lee Travers, John Robert Larson, LPL Financial or Waddell & Reed, please contact the Investment Loss Recovery Team at 1-800-856-3352 for a no-cost consultation and review.

NYSE Regulation has filed a complaint against Wedbush Securities firm and its owner, alleging that the firm engaged in the knowing and systemic failure to oversee and supervise the trading activities of its principal, Edward W. Wedbush. The NYSE’s complaint cites three separate prior instances of fines against Wedbush Securities totaling $4.1 million stemming from supervisory failures. Additionally, FINRA fined Wedbush Securities $675,000 for supervisory violations in another matter connected to a client’s redemption and trading of leveraged exchange-traded funds. If you are an investor who has suffered investment losses with a stockbroker, investment advisor, or financial consultant at Wedbush Securities, please contact the Investment Loss Recovery Team at 1-800-856-3352 for a no-cost consultation and review.

Morgan Stanley has announced it is dropping out of the Protocol for Broker Recruiting, and will instead focus on retaining experienced brokers and training new ones rather than hiring them from rivals. The Protocol was created in 2004 to reduce litigation arising out of departing broker’s solicitation of their former clients by allowing the brokers to retain and use limited client contact information after giving notice to their managers. Morgan Stanley has indicated that it will exit the Protocol on Friday, November 6, 2017, after which any Morgan Stanley advisor moving to another firm will be subject to a one-year non-solicitation ban in Morgan Stanley s advisor agreements that the firm appears intent on enforcing moving forward. If you have non-solicitation or non-compete agreement, or a retention or bonus contract with Morgan Stanley, please contact the Investment Loss Recovery Team at 1-800-856-3352 for a no-cost consultation and review.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has fined UBS Financial Services $3.5 million in connection with charges that it failed to provide certain clients with the lowest-cost fund choices to which they were entitled. As reported in InvestmentNews, the SEC claims that approximately 15,250 customer accounts at UBS paid a total of $18.5 million in up-front sales charges, contingent deferred sales charges, and higher ongoing fees and expenses as a result of the firm recommending and selling customers more expensive mutual fund share classes, when less expensive shares were available. If you are an investor who has suffered investment losses with a stockbroker, investment advisor, or financial consultant at UBS Financial Services, please contact the Investment Loss Recovery Team at 1-800-856-3352 for a no-cost consultation and review.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a Philadelphia trader with participating in a scheme to access the brokerage accounts of more than 100 unwitting victims and make unauthorized trades to artificially affect the stock prices of various companies. The SEC alleges that Joseph P. Willner generated at least $700,000 in illicit profits by trading in the same securities in his own accounts and taking advantage of the artificial stock prices that resulted from the unauthorized trades placed in the victim’s accounts. If you are an investor who has suffered investment losses involving Joseph P. Willner, please contact the Investment Loss Recovery Team at 1-800-856-3352 for a no-cost consultation and review.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a former senior partner at private equity firm Apollo Management L.P. with fraud. Mohammed Ali Rashid allegedly defrauded his fund clients by secretly billing them for approximately $290,000 in personal expenditures, including his family vacations, visits to a hair salon, and purchases of designer clothing and high-end electronics. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Rashid falsely claimed that certain individuals accompanied him to dinners to make it appear various personal expenses had a business purpose. If you are an investor who has suffered investment losses involving Apollo Management L.P. or Mohammed Ali Rashid, please contact the Investment Loss Recovery Team at 1-800-856-3352 for a no-cost consultation and review.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged mining company Rio Tinto and two former top executives with fraud for inflating the value of coal assets acquired for $3.7 billion and sold a few years later for $50 million. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Rio Tinto, its former CEO Thomas Albanese, and its former CFO Guy Elliott failed to follow accounting standards and company policies to accurately value and record its assets. As the project began to suffer multiple setbacks causing the rapid decline of the value of its coal assets, they sought to hide the nature and extent of the adverse developments from Rio Tinto and its investors. If you are an investor who has suffered investment losses involving Rio Tinto, please contact the Investment Loss Recovery Team at 1-800-856-3352 for a no-cost consultation and review.

The Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act was signed into law by President Trump this week. The Act requires the Attorney General to appoint an Elder Justice Coordinator in each judicial district, and also requires the FBI to implement training programs related to investigating elder abuse. The Act further expands the concept of telemarketing fraud under the federal criminal law to include email marketing fraud. If you are an individual aged 62 or older who has suffered losses or damages as a result of elder financial abuse at the hands of a stockbroker, investment advisor or financial consultant, please contact the Investment Loss Recovery Team at 1-800-856-3352 for a no-cost consultation and review.

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